Luciana Paluzzi Movies

This film is essentially the original pilot for the popular 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It was expanded to 92 minutes and shot in color for theatrical release. Robert Vaughn plays the master spy and adept action hero Napoleon Solo. He works for a shadowy supra-governmental enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. His partner is the suave Russian secret agent Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). In this pilot, a sinister organization called W.A.S.P. assassinates the president of an African republic and his assistants. Solo is enlisted to stop W.A.S.P.'s plans to take over the country and turn it into a dictatorship. The plot and action proceed at lightning speed against the backdrop of a brewing Cold War superpower confrontation. Through a series of mishaps, a housewife, Elaine May Donaldson (Pat Crowley) is dragged into the fight and helps Solo thwart the coup attempt. Also released as a film in 1966 was another expanded episode from the TV series, The Spy with My Face. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Just before he became an even greater movie star, Nino Manfredi starred in a number of less well-known films. Among his best efforts from the end of this period is this film, where he plays four different kinds of male scoundrels in a series of smaller stories, all written and directed by Lina Wertmuller. In the first, he plays a small businessman whose enterprise is on the rocks; luckily, his wife is a (skillful) kleptomaniac, and he takes advantage of that fact. In the next episode, he's a carnival knife-thrower who has been planning for years to "miss" and "accidentally kill his female assistant. The third episode finds him playing a professor who uses his position to enjoy more than his share of young female companionship. In the final episode, he is a country yokel with a knack for complaining about the smallest things -- even when nothing is happening. Witty dialogue and sight gags enliven this episodic starring vehicle. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The "vice and virtue" of the title of this wartime drama directed by Roger Vadim are exemplified in the personae of two very attractive women: Juliette (Annie Girardot) and Justine (Catherine Deneuve). Juliette is a collaborator and Justine supports the resistance movement, yet when her husband is arrested on her wedding day, she goes to Juliette to ask for help. That simple plan is nixed by a series of unfortunate circumstances that send Justine to a brothel for German soldiers and make Juliette the mistress of a brutal Nazi officer. The symbolism in this tale harks back to two stories by the Marquis de Sade, one titled "Juliette" and the other, "Justine." Vadim seems to have been caught between creating symbolic characters versus creating believable women since as the story unfolds, Juliette is not exactly vice incarnate, nor is Justine a model of pristine virtue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, The Reluctant Saint is based on the life of Saint Joseph of Cupertino. When young Giuseppe Diesa (Maximilian Schell) is sent to work at a monastery circa 17th century Italy -- his parents believed he was mentally challenged -- he surprises a local bishop by his incredible relationship with the monastery's animals. Believing this merits a traditional religious education, he is taken in and taught to pray, with miraculous results. His spiritual energy apparently allows him to levitate, which impressed many, and terrified others. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

This is an uneven though occasionally hilarious comedy about a remote British colony and diplomatic blunders. Terry-Thomas as a British diplomat and Peter Sellers as a nasty, vile Prime Minister on the island, tend to overshadow the roles they are playing. Carlton-Browne (Terry-Thomas) is sent to the remote island of Gaillardia to prevent any other powers from tapping into its potentially rich mineral deposits. The fact that the Brits have ignored Gaillardia for the last fifty years or that Carlton-Browne is a walking disaster does not stop the Foreign Office. Circumstances quickly spin out of control as the island colony heads toward revolution with a new, young king (Ian Bannen) on the throne. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This unrealistic, routine drama is the second half of a story that began with Der Tiger von Eschnapur. This sequel was later cut slightly, combined with the first story then released in English as Journey to the Lost City. Both halves were written by Thea von Harbou and the 1959 films are both directed by Fritz Lang, von Harbou's former husband. In this continuation, Seetha (Debra Paget) and the architect Harald (Paul Hubschmid) have fallen in love. The biggest stumbling block to their romance is Chandra, the Maharaja of Eshnapur (Walther Reyer). He wants Seetha for himself. Because of that, the lovers fled from Eshnapur and are now being hunted by the Maharaja's henchmen. That leads to inevitable killings, cruelties, and inhuman conduct until the Maharaja himself is the only one left who can right the situation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this WW II adventure, five brave Allies endeavor to escape from an Italian POW camp in North Africa. They succeed, but their trials are not over as they must still cross the burning Libyan desert to get safely behind Allied lines. En route they are captured by a Nazi-loving sheik. The sheik takes considerable time to decide the fate of the escapees; in that time, the five manage to escape again. This time they kill their captors. The film is also titled No Time to Die. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Heralding a decade of Italian-made sword-and-sandal films, Hercules -- as it's been known in the United States since its 1959 release -- draws most of its plot from the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Hercules, the half-immortal son of Jupiter (or Zeus) rescues Iole, the daughter of Pelias, the king of Jolco, when the horses pulling her chariot run wild. Returning her to the court, he is engaged by Pelias to train his vain, arrogant son in the use of arms, that he may one day become a warrior king. Pelias' hold on power is very uncertain, owing to the way he became king -- his brother, the previous monarch, was murdered by persons unknown in the palace -- and he looks to leave a dynasty. The prince is later killed through his own foolishness, however, and the blame falls on Hercules. In order to win back the grieving heart of Iole, Hercules surrenders his immortality and manages to triumph in a savage test of his strength against the Cretan Bull. One day, a stranger arrives in Jolco claiming to be Jason, Pelias' nephew, and son of the murdered king -- and the rightful king. To prove his claim, he vows to sail to the ends of the Earth and reclaim the Golden Fleece, the symbol of rightful rule in Jolco, which was stolen on the night that his father was murdered. A crew is assembled that includes various legendary figures out of Greek mythology, with Hercules at the head of the list. They survive encounters with sea storms and a predatory race of women, the machinations of a traitor in their ranks, and Pelias' treachery, and Jason slays the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. On their return, however, the Fleece is stolen and Hercules is imprisoned. Jason and his men are surrounded by Pelias' soldiers and a battle ensues. Iole frees Hercules, who comes to the aid of Jason and restores him to the throne that's rightfully his. This battle features one of the best action sequences in the film as Hercules, his wrists still in the shackles and chains that bound him in Pelias' dungeon, first kills the man who murdered the old king and then, faced with mounted cavalry charging him on the steps of the palace, pulls down the pillars supporting the facade and wipes out the cavalry. Pelias, unable to contain his own guilt, commits suicide and Iole, seeing the truth about her father, goes to Hercules and accepts him as her husband. Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts, made six years later, told the same story with far superior effects and a less conclusive ending, but Hercules is a fun movie in its own right, and Steve Reeves cuts a stunning figure, even if his voice is dubbed. Curiously, there are two different dubbed versions of Hercules in circulation, one of which (the one that was on television in the early '60s, and was on the VidAmerica videocassette) features a simpler range of English dialogue that works better. The other version occasionally uses more florrid language (and appeared on the Image Entertainment letterboxed laserdisc), which doesn't really resonate well. The giveaway comes in the scene where Hercules prays to Jupiter at the temple, surrendering his powers. The simpler, better track has the echoed voice come back "the Cretan Bull awaits." ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Because of star Brigitte Bardot's single fleeting disrobing scene in the French farce Please, Mr. Balzac!, the film was retitled Mademoiselle Striptease by one enterprising American distributor. Essentially, this is a harmless little escapade in which Bardot, escaping the strictures of her puritanical father, jumps off a train bound for a proper girls' school to seek her fortune in Paris. Here she moves in with her brother, a museum curator. The presence of the voluptuous Bardot causes most of her brother's stuffy co-workers to behave like Tex Avery's cartoon wolf. Co-written by director Yves Allegret and Roger Vadim, Mlle. Striptease was released in France as En Effeuillant la Marguerite; some English-language prints bear the title While Plucking the Daisy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide